Protection of deployed military forces is essential to effectively securing the nation. Today, billions of dollars are spent on securing borders and checkpoints in certain regions, at an increasing rate, due to a failure to effectively integrate fielded tools and technologies or to design tools in a manner that withstands the rigors and harsh environmental conditions found in certain regions, such as deserts. These spending increases, while difficult to quantify due to available data on the pace of operations and other factors that might affect costs, tend to have a detrimental effect on society as a whole.
Locations must often be secured to ensure public safety and welfare. For example, places where there are large concentrations of people, such as airports or entertainment events, places that are of particular governmental importance, such as courthouses and government buildings, places where the military is deployed for dangerous missions and other operations, and other places where the threat of violence is high, require security measures to thwart dangerous or illegal activities. The primary security objective is to prevent the unauthorized entry of weapons, dangerous materials, illegal items, or other contraband into the location, thereby securing it. This is often achieved by requiring all people, items and vehicles to enter into the location through defined checkpoints and, in those checkpoints, subjecting those people, items and vehicles to thorough searches.
Currently, various devices are used to perform such searches. Regardless of the place of use, these detection systems are employed to detect the presence of contraband on the body, luggage and vehicles of individuals entering the secure area. Contraband is not limited to weapons and arms, but rather it includes explosives (fireworks, ammunition, sparklers, matches, gunpowder, signal flares); weapons (guns, swords, pepper sprays, martial arts weapons, knives); pressurized containers (hair sprays, insect repellant, oxygen/propane tanks); poisons (insecticides, pesticides, arsenic, cyanide); household items (flammable liquids, solvents, bleach); and corrosives (acids, lye, mercury).
Such conventional security systems rely on data individually recorded by each security device to evaluate the performance of the specific device. For example, a metal detector with an embedded counter records and stores the number of people that passed through the metal detector in a given period of time. Similarly, a baggage screening X-ray machine records the number of bags passed through the system and the number of bags that possibly contained contraband.
In addition, screening checkpoints used in current security systems predominately operate using a single input and single output line approach. Each item must be thoroughly and individually scanned in the conventional systems. The complex security protocols being instituted require individuals to have each of their belongings, including laptops, shoes, coats, mobile phones, keys and other items, scanned by an X-ray scanner.
Further, with limited space and a need to expand, finding suitable space to accommodate additional inspection facilities along the normal process route remains difficult. Additionally, selected locations are not necessarily permanent enough for port operators to commit to the long term installation of inspection equipment. Moreover, systems incorporating high-energy X-ray sources, or linear accelerators (LINAC), require either a major investment in shielding material (generally in the form of concrete formations or buildings) or the use of exclusion zones (dead space) around the building itself. In either case, the building footprint is significant depending upon the size of cargo containers to be inspected.
A mobile inspection system offers an appropriate solution to the need for flexible, enhanced inspection capabilities. Because the system is re-locatable and investing in a permanent building in which to accommodate the equipment is obviated, site allocation becomes less of an issue and introducing such a system becomes less disruptive. Also, a mobile X-ray system provides operators, via higher throughput, with the ability to inspect a larger array of cargo, shipments, vehicles, and other containers.
Conventional re-locatable inspection systems generally comprise at least two booms, wherein one boom will contain a plurality of detectors and the other boom will contain at least one X-ray source. The detectors and X-ray source work in unison to scan the cargo on the moving vehicle. In conventional single boom re-locatable inspection systems, the X-ray source is located on a truck or flatbed and the detectors on a boom structure extending outward from the truck. These systems are characterized by moving-scan-engine systems wherein the source-detector system moves with respect to a stationary object to be inspected. Also, the detectors and the source of radiation are either mounted on a moveable bed, boom or a vehicle such that they are integrally bound with the vehicle. This limits the flexibility of dismantling the entire system for optimum portability and adjustable deployment to accommodate a wide array of different sized cargo, shipments, vehicles, and other containers. As a result these systems can be complicated to deploy and pose several disadvantages and constraints.
For example, in a moving-scan-engine system the movement of the source and detector, relative to a stationary object, may cause lateral twist and lift and fall of the detector or source, due to movement of the scanner over uneven ground, inducing distortions in the scanned images and faster wear and tear of the scanner system. Systems where the weight of the detector or source is held on a boom require high structural strength for the boom in order to have the boom stable for imaging process, thereby adding more weight into the system. Such systems that require a detector-mounted boom to unfold during deployment may cause an unstable shift of the center of gravity of the system off the base, causing the system to tip over. Further, in the case of moving-scan-engine systems using a “swing arm” boom approach, the driver driving the scanner truck is unable to gauge the possibility of hitting the detector box, mounted on a boom, with a vehicle under inspection (VUI), as the detector box is on the other side of the VUI during scanning and not visible to the driver.
Additionally, with moving-scan-engine systems, the truck supporting the scanner system is always required to move the full weight of the scanner regardless of the size and load of the VUI, putting greater strain on the scanning system. Also disadvantageous in conventional systems is that they suffer from a lack of rigidity, are difficult to implement, and/or have smaller fields of vision.
Accordingly, there is need for improved inspection methods and systems built into a fully self-contained, over-the-road-legal vehicle that can be brought to a site and rapidly deployed for inspection. The improved method and system can, therefore, service multiple inspection sites and set up surprise inspections to thwart contraband traffickers who typically divert smuggling operations from border crossings that have tough interdiction measures to softer crossings with lesser inspection capabilities. Moreover, there is an additional need for methods and systems that require minimal footprint to perform inspection and that use a sufficient range of radiation energy spectrum to encompass safe and effective scanning of light commercial vehicles as well as substantially loaded 20-foot or 40-foot ISO cargo containers. It is important that such scanning is performed without comprising the integrity of the cargo and should ideally be readily deployable in a variety of environments ranging from airports to ports of entry where a single-sided inspection mode needs to be used due to congested environments. Similar needs are addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,599, entitled “Self-Contained Portable Inspection System and Method”, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Improved methods and systems are additionally needed to keep the relative position between the radiation source and detector fixed to avoid distortion in images caused by the movement of scanner and/or detectors over uneven ground or due to unstable structures. Moreover, there is a need for improved methods and systems that can provide comprehensive cargo scanning in portable and stationary settings. Specifically, methods and systems are needed in which a single boom is employed for generating quality images for inspection. Further, the system should be mounted on a re-locatable vehicle, capable of receiving and deploying the boom.
What is also needed is a single boom cargo scanning system that enables quick and easy deployment, rigidity and tight alignment of the radiation sources and detectors, and a narrow collimated radiation beam, thus allowing for a smaller exclusion zone. In addition, what is needed is an optimal scanning system design that allows for the radiation source to be closer to the Object under Inspection (“OUI”), thereby allowing for higher penetration capability and complete scanning of the target vehicle without corner cutoff. Similar needs are addressed in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,322,745, entitled “Single Boom Cargo Scanning System” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Further, in the mobile cargo inspection systems known in the art, the boom structures are typically heavy, thereby causing the overall weight of the scanning system to be close to, or even over the allowable axle load limits. Further, the booms are bulky when stowed such that the vehicle is approximately 4 m high above road level. This makes a mobile scanning system not only difficult to manoeuvre but also restricts its movement in different territories due to the applicable road restrictions on carriage weight. Therefore, there is also a need for a scanning system that can be stowed in a relatively compact area so that it can be easily transported on road, as well as by air. In addition, there is also a need for a scanning system which is light weight, and has a low height and center of gravity in a stowed position, thereby allowing for road transport even in challenging, steep and hilly areas.
What is also needed is a scanning system that can be deployed from a stowed configuration to an operational configuration in operating areas having limited horizontal or vertical clearance.
Therefore, what is needed is an integrated portable checkpoint system that contains the latest security screening and inspection equipment with increased operational capabilities. What is also needed in an integrated checkpoint system that is contained within at least one container. What is also needed is an integrated checkpoint container system that is ruggedized. What is also needed is an integrated checkpoint container system that has a modular design and can be controlled via the same graphical user interface (GUI).
Additionally, there is a need for methods or systems of integrating data from multiple security devices dynamically and communicating such data to a plurality of users, in order to enable effective security.
There is also a need for an intelligently managed security system, where the plurality of information is centrally processed for yielding specific outputs to different users. Also, there is a need to correlate the scanning data of different entities to improve the security level.